A Struggle for a Ring — page 372: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

368 " TAT SEALS MY FATE!" that he read in her eyes was a dim, dull, anxious look that told him nothing. It seemed to Ailie that her very faculty of invention was paralyzed that evening. She had read stories wherein notes, such as:she had written, were passed even in the most delicate and dangerous situations. What was to pre- vent her from doing something of the kind? Supposing that she dropped it on the floor and raised it, pretending to think it his—and then, suppose the countess should intercept it, and, thinking it was her son’s, read it? Sup- pose she took a book and put it between the leaves, and then passed the book to him? She might do that; but then, in a brilliantly-lighted drawing-room like that, it was not so easy as it seemed. She, Lady Waldrove’s com- panion, was not supposed to be on such intimate terms with Lord Carsdale as to speak to him when she would. She roused herself suddenly to a sense of what was going on near her. ‘‘My dear Miss Derwent,” the countess was saying, in the most exasperated tone, ‘‘would you be kind enough to tell me what you mean by that fixed stare at nothing? I have told you five times that Iam tired. I want you to find the third volume of the ‘ Mill on the Floss,’ and bring it to my room.” And Ailie, as she followed the countess, wondered how she could manage to give her husband a message that night. (e(0)